MEMBRANE Sintesi della relazione

The MEMBrane projects aims at developing a radically new and generic type of detector for photons, electrons and energetic charged particles: a stacked set of curved miniature dynodes in vacuum, created through MicroMechanical Electronic Systems (MEMS) fabrication techniques on top of a state-of-the-art CMOS pixel chip. This combination in itself is an extremely efficient electron detector. By capping the system with a traditional photocathode, a highly sensitive timed photon counter can be realized, outperforming all existing photon detectors. By capping it with an Electron Emission Membrane, a timed particle tracking detector is realized with a time resolution far superior to current particle detectors.

A major challenge and thereby an essential indicator of success is the so called Secondary Electron Yield (SEY) of the dynodes: the multiplication factor of secondary versus primary electrons. The major part of the MEMBrane efforts are directed towards optimizing and measuring this SEY. Halfway the project we have now clear indications, that an SEY of more than 4 is achievable.